In the Forest of Dean
by Ming Xiong
Summary: A halt in a village during their search for Voldemort's horcruxes leads Neville, Hermione and Ron to discover someone thought long dead by the wizarding world. AU, Boy-Who-Lived!Neville, hints to a future NL/HP
1. Chapter 1

**In the Forest of Dean**

Disclaimer: Not mine

Author's note: In the end, I still didn't manage to write as much as I hoped for – but this is the longest I've ever written. Still, sorry for the short chapters! Enjoy your reading! =)

Part 1

"Are we there yet?"

Hermione shoots an incredulous look at Ron who, in turn, looks at her expectantly. True, they have been walking for hours already towards the small village she promised them, but surely he can stand one more hour of waiting after weeks of wandering around?

"I'm tired, and I'm hungry!"

Apparently not.

"We'll be there soon," interjects Neville. Good old Neville who keeps them from fighting too much. And they try not to, because he doesn't like it and Neville deserves every bit of peace they can offer him, but it's hard to not get snippy when they spend all their time together – her father once told Hermione "You only get to really know someone when you travel with them"; and it's true, and the stress and the anxiety and the _fear_ exacerbate every feeling, but then again Ron has always known how to push her buttons.

She sighs in relief when they finally reach the village, and hears the two boys behind her do the same. They have enough muggle money left to eat a warm and fresh meal after groceries shopping, and hopefully Ron won't complain in the next few days. Hermione plans on taking them to the haunted shack outside the village, to amuse them a bit, and then Neville inhales sharply.

Alarmed, Ron and Hermione follow his gaze, but don't notice anything. Neville is looking towards the market place, where the whole village seems to have gathered, but Hermione can't see any snatchers or Death Eaters, can't sense any magic around, and she has already opened her mouth to ask Neville when a young man turns from the fish stall to the fruit and vegetables one. She remembers seeing his picture in "The Rise and Fall of the Dark Lord", above the caption stating that he and his family died the same night as Neville's parents. In the picture, though, James Potter was older than they are now, and anyway he's dead, as is his son – and what was his son's name again?

XxX

They leave the village in the late afternoon, shadows extending across the street until only the roofs are lit by the setting sun. It's getting cold, and the group is still subdued after their almost-encounter with a ghost. Hermione knows that the Potters were good friends of the Longbottoms', and she thinks that Neville has probably seen a lot of pictures of them, and she doesn't know how it would feel to be the sole survivor of two tightly-knit families.

And then Neville stops and blurts out "His eyes were clear."

That doesn't make sense, thinks Hermione, because James Potter had dark eyes on the picture she saw. Neville has probably sensed her surprise, because he continues, "That guy at the market. He had clear eyes. And he was too young anyway, he can't be…"

But he can be someone else, and though it is more probable that a muggle happens to bear a strong resemblance to the old Potter family (after all, squibs often end up living in the muggle world), Neville seems to think not of James Potter but of another dead, the one who was only one day younger than him when he lived.

And she still can't remember his name, just his tiny fist closed around a corner of his mother's shawl and wondering how anyone could be capable of murdering a baby. She was only eleven, and knows better now.

XxX

The haunted shack outside the village has disappeared, was probably pulled down some time in the last few years, and Hermione regrets it; she used to go see it with her parents, and despite all her logical thinking when she was little she hoped to one day see a ghost through the broken windows. By now she has seen countless ghosts in Hogwarts, but having to resign herself to never knowing if the building really was haunted rankles. Where do ghosts go after their haunting place disappeared?

They disapparate.


	2. Chapter 2

Part 2

When Ron leaves them after another few weeks of wandering and planning and arguing, Hermione is less surprised than she would have liked to be. Ron snapped earlier than Neville and her because all the waiting and isolation are newer to him than to them, because growing up with six siblings couldn't prepare him even a bit to the solitude they have been experiencing so often since they left everything to chase the Horcruxes. It is not a surprise, but it still hurts very much; she hates herself for crying in bed and acting like those whiny girls she despised in the novels her mother used to read to her. Neville tries to comfort her, of course, but Neville isn't the same as _Ron_, and yet Ron left her – and so she decides not to think about him anymore.

Neville decides to have them take a break to cheer her up and takes them both to the little village they visited some time ago. The ghost there is much more tangible than all the leads they have been pursuing up to now, and it is market day again today.

They wander along the stalls, revelling in the colours and noise surrounding them, admiring the ripe pears and the golden pies. Hermione has slung her arm into Neville's.

The villagers all notice them as they pass, some eying them with open curiosity, others with teasing smiles directed at their linked arms, never in mistrust. Hermione smiles and inhales the scent of Asian cooking coming from the smallest stall to their right; Neville, she feels, is also far less tense than he has been in the last four months. Though he still isn't smiling, the area around his eyes is relaxed.

They are looking at a selection of second-hand books when Hermione notices the stall holders starting to pack everything away, and she can't bring herself to be disappointed at having missed the one they were looking for.

XxX

As they leave the village, Hermione sees a shock of black hair enter one of the houses on the periphery. They stop in front of the old white house that stands in a row of identical buildings, probably reconverted almshouses.

Neville looks longingly at the closed door before Hermione tugs on his arm to make him move.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Somehow, the chapters keep getting shorter... Here is the last part, enjoy and thanks for reading!

Part 3

Ron has come back and yet another horcrux has been destroyed, this time by the sword of Gryffindor he wielded. Yet his departure has sown seeds of doubt in their friendship, and she can't escape the haunting thought – _what if he left again?_ Ron came back, and the atmosphere isn't quite the same as before, and Hermione buries herself in books while Neville dreams of a mass of black hair glimpsed from across the marketplace. In their tent, as Ron sleeps, Hermione and Neville bury themselves under her blanket and look at the photo album Neville always carries. There are no recent pictures; the last one was taken by his father. It shows two babies in a playpen.

And as they get taken to Malfoy Manor, as Bellatrix Lestrange calls her Lord to announce their capture, Neville still seems to fight only for one person. Is this only curiosity, or is it the much vaunted "love at first sight" Hermione so despises? Perhaps just fantasy, the imaginary hero he wanted when he was small, Neville confesses to her.

But it doesn't deter him, and Neville fights not for the wizarding world anymore, but for another glance into clear eyes.

And while Death Eaters swarm the school, while Hogwarts becomes a battleground, Neville finally gets – only the beginning of an answer, really, but one he desperately wanted.

And he kneels next to Severus Snape in the dirt of the Shrieking Shack, looks into the eyes of he who once was his enemy as memories flow and seep into the disjointed floorboards, and in that moment they, the wizarding hero and the bitter potions master, finally find a common ground as Snape murmurs: "My son Harry –"

He has already become too weak to continue, but Neville has understood, and Hermione knows that if Neville survives, if he against all odds vanquishes Voldemort, he will go back to a peaceful haven and, for the first time, approach Harry – and then perhaps he will spend the rest of his life by the side of the Boy Who Died.

-Fin-


End file.
